Additional Comments Prior to the al-Nashiri Hearings – M.Baumgartner

I’ve noticed similar remarks from people when I tell them what I will be doing next week: “Didn’t that happen years ago?” or “That is still going on?”. I think the same thing as I read through the binder of information and did my own research. My husband, also an attorney by trade, and I discussed a lot of the information as I couldn’t help commenting while reading.

Why is it that someone who was captured in 2002, held for four years in secret prisons, charged in 2008 (those were dropped in 2009 when GTMO was SUPPOSED to be closed down), charged again in 2011, is just now getting to pre-trial hearings without release? I skimmed the articles of the Geneva Convention and found myself wondering what we, as a country, are in violation of? Conversely, does the Convention even apply to al-Nashiri as the alleged mastermind of the U.S.S. Cole attacks? Is al-Nashiri a “prisoner of war” (he is referred to as an enemy combatant) as it is meant to be interpreted under the Convention?

These are some of the questions I plan to delve further into this week.

Endorsements

“While [at Guantanamo Bay] I was given a copy of the Guantanamo Bay Fair Trial Manual for U.S. Military Commissions. I read it cover to cover. This is simply required reading for anyone who goes [to Guantanamo Bay] to observe. Thank you for the enormous effort it must have taken to produce it.
[NGO Observer, 2014]

After reading the Guantanamo Bay Fair Trial Manual, "I feel a high calling to meet the obligations you note for an observer to report what they have observed.”
[NGO Observer, 2014]